Well, I'll probably regret saying this, but US wasn't half-assed. Whether the results were pleasing is something else entirely. Kawazu made the game he wanted to make, and there weren't millions of bugs or unimplemented features or clipping errors that would send you spinning off into The Void because you accidentally went into climb mode on a near-vertical ramp (Hi Daggerfall). I think everyone can say they have their own idea for a game they thing would be incredibly fun that nobody else would likely enjoy (Case in point, a decent number of amateur game devs like it. Amateur game devs tend to like bizarre vanity projects like that, probably because they like picking systems apart). In any case, his project, he wanted to do it, he did it, live and let live.

Bad games that are completely half-assed are a completely different story. Sort of like how I feel about Daggerfall. I don't mind buggy games. I do mind it when games adopt a completely... insane method of handling file input and data storage, and then flaunt it. Also, skills that don't do anything. That bothers me. That's like a carrot dangling in front of your nose, and it's an awesome carrot, because it promises all sorts of wonderful things, like being able to talk to dryads, or something involving complex political relationships between towns. But then you never see any sort of indication of that in the game and it's just dissapointing.

Then you have stuff like Quest 64.

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o/` I do not feel joy o/`o/` I do not dream o/`o/` I only stare at the door and smoke o/`

Gameplay is moving your character one square at a time around a large game board - and pressing X to stop a wheel from spinning is your battle system. Wait until you get to the joys of opening treasure chests, which requires multiple menus and button presses.

It's not hard, it's just tedious and repetitive, minus the animation, exploration, and interaction you may have come to expect in an RPG. Oh - and the fun factor is pretty close to being force fed an oatmeal and mustard sandwich.

It seems to me that Square Enix created a wonderfully complex game but failed to do a good job of explaining the nuances of the game to the player. I personally wish it had done better, as I would like to play more games like it.

Scottish, Square Enix has a track record of doing that, and they still do it. Most recently, you have FFXII, and while it's bette in this sense, they still don't really explain sufficiently or clearly how the weapons differ, and the actual info is sort of buried under millions of menues. You can still hack through the game not really knowing much about this, but it does make things more interesting and effective, and a more detailed explanation would be nice.

Other games too, but I'm not getting into that. And it's not really a problem unique to Square, either. I guess the problem's not as bad on the PC market because you have a keyboard, meaning a much more... complicated way of just dealing with the stuff on a basically level, so you can't just fumble through menues and things and figure it out on your own like on a console, but there've been, uh... SUP, DEREK SMART.

You don't want to show the player ALL of the numbers, but hiding all of them just gives the player poor feedback.

Part of this I imagine, though, is just that console game boxes are tiny, and hefty manuals are sort of problematic. I don't know why stronger, searchable in-game manuals aren't as common.

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alonso:

also, even though I'm actually one of the few that like this game, I'm going to agree with everyone that the towns sucks. It's not that they're menu based. There's nothing wrong with that (especially with the tendency towards small towns in RPG that was common in RPGs when that game was newer. FFXII looks like it's trying to reverse this trend, thankyoujesus). The main problem is that none of the towns, save for, uh, two, have anything interesting in them. Carrier Guild, which is useless to everyone but ventus, and inn, and a blacksmith (sometimes). That's it. Bleh.

anyway, the dungeons are really interactive, though, and have some neat puzzles. Just ignore the towns.

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Honestly, this title is going to take a different "fun" approach than your straight forward console rpg.

I will say the game is unique in that I've never really played a game like it before, even in the SaGa series. You can pick the game up for a steal these days which makes it a bit easier to stomach as well. If you spent $49.99 on release day expecting something traditional then I can see why someone might be upset.

The key to having fun with Unlimited SaGa is patience. You really need to get into the game, learn the wheel, learn the battle system, figure out how to upgrade and power up your characters, and spend a great deal of time getting involved in the world.

If not, you will die, get lost, be confused, find yourself feeling like your playing monopoly with funny pieces, etc, etc.

The combat reel thing isn't too confusing. If you've played the Shadow Hearts games, it's... MOSTLY similar. Different 'regions' cause more powerful attacks to happen. The main difference is that you can't get any weird effects put on the reel and, uh, it spins forever.

The reel you get for doing stuff on the maps seems to be semi-random. Just press X whenever it comes up. It's more influenced by your skill level in whatever you're trying to do than the combat reel, though. Like, having level 5 in weapon repair means that you're going to have pretty much nothing but 'success' slots on the reel for that.

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o/` I do not feel joy o/`o/` I do not dream o/`o/` I only stare at the door and smoke o/`